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Monday, March 02, 2009

At the top of the Gallery the men of the Episcopal Conference meet hotel guests in bathrobes on the way to the sauna. From time to time, a wellness fan looks over the parapet and looks puzzled at the press conference below. Normally, meetings of the Bishops are held in Catholic institutions. In Protestant Hamburg, there is no Catholic meeting place which would have been large enough.

Cathcon- So they book into 5 star luxury at the Grand Elysee! - Hamburg is not the only town in Germany! - also seems not to be true- the Dominicans appear large enough as do these Benedictines). Although their chapel looks more like a sauna than anything else-could make the bishops feel at home.

The article continues

But as Archbishop Zollitsch said: "The Catholic Church wants to meet people where they are."

Cathcon-Well better get down to the swimming pool. Only the American Bishops Conference treats themselves better- booking the Hyatt.

London - The British Holocaust denier David Irving believes that the recent statement of the traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson, who on Thursday asked for forgiveness for his outrageous statements about the Holocaust, has not put an end to the controversy. "He was pushed into it by the SSPX. That is also not helping him," said Irving to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Friday in London. He even had offered the bishop accommodation after his return to Britain. "I'm ready to take him in." The bishop, however, has not yet been in contact with him. "He is with theSSPX in Wimbledon," said Irving.

Irving, who works as a historian, confirmed that Williamson had been in contact with him before his departure from Argentina in order to seek advice. From an e-mail correspondence with Irving can be seen that Williamson had sought advice from the German lawyer Maximilian Krah. The lawyers office in Dresden of Fetsch did not wish to comment to the DPA. Whether Williamson was in contact falls under legal confidentiality, said lawyer Daniel Adler. Krah himself could not be reached.

Irving was given a three-year prison sentence in Austria because of denial of Nazi crimes but was released early from prison. He lives in Windsor, west of London. Williamson got to know him at a garden party at his home last October.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X, has told SPIEGEL that his organization has "clearly distanced itself" from Bishop Richard Williamson. Nevertheless, he says the bishop's apology for his Holocaust denial is a step in the right direction.

Swiss Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX).SPIEGEL: Bishop, weeks ago you gave your colleague Richard Williamson a book so that he can read up on the Holocaust. Last week he published an apology which falls short of the Vatican's demand that he retract his Holocaust denial. Does Williamson's statement suffice in your opinion?

Fellay: It is definitely a first plea for forgiveness and, therefore, an important step in the right direction. One can always hope for better phrasing. At least the plea for forgiveness is honest, and the withdrawal of his words is genuine.

SPIEGEL: That hope seems unfounded. After his arrival in London, Williamson surrounded himself with people who have openly denied the Holocaust, such as the historian David Irving. Do you know why?Fellay: I have the impression that Bishop Williamson is being used by these people. Information was deliberately fed to the media here. We're working against that as well as we can. I am totally against these connections.

SPIEGEL: But your influence on Williamson seems to be weak.Fellay: We are in contact, he is in a priory of the society in London for the time being. But he is also a free human being. Sure, he has a superior, but he is free in his decisions. But he has to bear the consequences for that.

SPIEGEL: Will he return to his full duties?Fellay: That is impossible under the current circumstances. He has damaged us and hurt our reputation. We have very clearly distanced ourselves. He was not ordained as a bishop for his own personal purpose but for the common good of the church, to spread the revealed truth.

Exactly 70 years ago Eugenio Pacelli was elected Pope Pius XII. After the war, you studied in Rome for seven years during his pontificate. Have you often seen Pius personally?

Hans Küng: Yes, for the first time in May 1948 in Castel Gandolfo close up. Two years later, I was in St Peter's Square for the definition of the dogma on the Assumption of Mary into heaven and, of course, on other occasions. More than once I spoke in St. Peter's into the same microphone as Pius, when the pilgrim crowds flocked to Rome in 1950 for the Holy Year.

sueddeutsche.de: What impression did you form of the Pope?

Küng: I admired him then. Pius XII was an extremely impressive figure. In many areas, he did well: first concessions on the vernacular in the liturgy and a progressive encyclical on biblical exegesis. But the first doubts came to me in Rome.

sueddeutsche.de: What sparked your concerns?

Küng: When he forbade worker priests and dismissed the leading elite of French theology, people like Henri de Lubac (Cathcon-who held erroneous views on grace and nature) and Yves Congar, both later Cardinals and also Teilhard de Chardin (Cathcon-God forbid that he should ever have become a cardinal given what he wrote on the relation between God and nature).

sueddeutsche.de: Pius XII. Today, he is especially controversial because he did not publicly denounce the Holocaust, about which he was clearly in the picture. Were you already interested in that in Rome?

Küng: No, only later in 1963. These doubts first came to me with Rolf Hochhuth’s drama "The Representative - a Christian tragedy".

sueddeutsche.de: Meanwhile the Catholic Church seeks to represent the Pope as a helper of persecuted Jews. The Holy See has published numerous documents that show the assistance given to the Jewish community and the Nazi critical statements of Pius. How do you see his role in retrospect?

Küng: On the whole, despite all of this, there remain concerns that Pius failed on the question of Judaism and the Holocaust, because he has not used his power as a prophetic witness. He was silent on all and every German crime, although he knew perfectly well from 1942 mainly through the Berne Nuncio and Italian military chaplains. Even his German confidant, Sister Pasqualina, pleaded with him about the Holocaust - in vain. Pius refused to publicly criticize the largest mass murder in history. Against this fact, one cannot simply cite documents.

sueddeutsche.de What would such a "prophetic witness" look like?

Küng: As Clemens von Galen, Bishop of Munster, successfully protested against euthanasia, so Pius should have protested against the annihilation of the Jews. He should not have treated Judaism as a Quantité négligable (negligible quantity; note Red.). For him, the suffering of the Jews was not so important as there were other priorities.

sueddeutsche.de: What was important for Pius?

Küng: In difficult times, he wanted to preserve the Catholic Church as an institution, ie the Curia, hierarchy, schools, associations and other bodies. The struggle for human rights and democracy was profoundly alien to Pius throughout his life.

sueddeutsche.de: Didn’t Pius remained silent about Nazi crimes to prevent harm to the church?

Küng: He was certainly in a predicament and in a conflict of conscience. But we must not forget that he had already earlier seen Nazism as a potential partner.

sueddeutsche.de: Can you give examples?

Küng: 1931, two years before Hitler seized power, the then Secretary of State Cardinal Pacelli urged the Reich Chancellor Heinrich Brüning from the Centre Party to go into coalition with the Nazi party. Then he concluded on 20 July 1933 an unfortunate Reich Concordat with the Nazi regime. Hitler saw this as a first and extremely important recognition for his foreign policy. As far as internal German politics was concerned the agreement integrated the Catholics and the reluctant German episcopacy as well as the clergy into the Nazi system.

sueddeutsche.de: What was the role of the fear of communism withi Vatican in the prelude to this agreement with the Nazis?

Küng: Germany should be happily built up as a bulwark. You need to say to the good of the man who would later be Pope he correctly interpreted earlier than most other Russian dictator Josef Stalin. But he has, on the other side, he perceived the Nazi system as less bad than the communist one.

He was aware of the affinity between his own authoritarian ecclesiastical understanding - it was anti-protestant, anti-modern, anti-liberal and anti-socialism - and the fascist understanding of the state. With regard to the notions of "unity", "order", "discipline," "the leader principle" he recognized the similarities with Nazi ideology. The Nazis wanted to enforce at the level of the state similar things to the Catholic Church on the religious-supernatural level.

sueddeutsche.de: After 1930, the Secretary of State Cardinal Pacelli was the top diplomat to the Vatican. How did he behave after 1933, when German Jews were disenfranchised and persecuted - and the expansion plans of Hitler were being revealed?

Küng: Pacelli was silent. He failed as Cardinal Secretary of State to protest against the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935, he did not denounce the Reich pogrom of 1938 and the assault of fascist Italy on Ethiopia in 1935-36. As Pope, he did not criticise the invasion of Albania by Italy on Good Friday 1939. And what gave rise to significant resentment in Poland: he did not denounce the criminal attack of Hitler's army in Poland at the start of the Second World War.

sueddeutsche.de: However, he tried a few days before the outbreak of war to mediate.

Küng: Pius was always for peace, I will not deny. You cannot also cheapen him to the level of military and finance speculators, as he is represented by Hochhuth. But he saw the struggle of the Nazis as a defence against communism. Hitler was for him, in comparison to Stalin, the lesser of two evils. Pacelli continued his struggle against communism after 1945. He excommunicated then all Catholics who were members of Communist parties. But he previously failed to excommunicate those who were formally Catholics in the Nazi leadership - Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels and others -.

sueddeutsche.de: After the war, he showed himself as a Pope with a refined soul, who had been treated badly.

Küng: That was basically a serious matter. Even so, he is certainly not a saint. Pius never made an admission of guilt that he could have done much more. Of course, we know that he began diplomatic activities for the rescue of Jews. In 1942 and 1943, he gave two speeches, where he complained briefly about the fate of the “unfortunate people" who are persecuated for the sake of their race. But the word "Jew", never publicly came from his mouth.sueddeutsche.de: Pius died in 1958. A few years later, the Second Vatican Council renewed the church (Cathcon- renewal, what renewal?). Are there still significant after-effects of the Pius pontificate?

Küng: One wonders whether the Curia in these days is not again moving in the footsteps of Pius XII: centralized, authoritarian, inquisitorial - and not ecumenical, open-minded and tolerant, as successor of Pius, John XXIII wanted.

: : : DICI : : : - one would wish that such filial devotion could be found in other parts of the Catholic Church.

Most Holy Father,

In sentiments of thanksgiving we wish to express our deep gratitude for Your act of paternal kindness and for the apostolic courage by which You rendered ineffective the measure which imposed upon us twenty years ago as a consequence of our episcopal consecrations. Your decree dated January 21, 2009 restores in some way the reputation of the venerated founder of our priestly Society, His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. It also procures a great good to the Church, so it seems to us, by doing justice to the priests and faithful worldwide who, attached to the Tradition of the Church, will no longer be unjustly stigmatized for having kept the Faith of their fathers.

Because of this combat for the Faith, we assure Your Holiness, according to the wish You expressed, that we “will spare no effort in exploring as yet unresolved questions through requisite discussions with the authorities of the Holy See.” Indeed we desire to begin, as soon as possible, exchanges with representatives of Your Holiness concerning doctrines opposed to the Magisterium of all time.

By following this path still necessary, mentioned by Your Holiness, we hope to help the Holy See to bring the appropriate remedy to the loss of the Faith inside the Church.

The Immaculate Virgin Mary has clearly guided the steps of Your Holiness toward us, She will continue Her gracious intercession in His favor. With this assurance, we filially ask the Universal Pastor to bless four of His sons most attached to the Successor of Peter and to His charge of feeding the lambs and the sheep of the Lord.

Bishop Schwarz was not summoned to Rome - he only went there so discussions could be had on how to calm the situation down.

Cathcon- Linz is a Diocese out of control and sooner or later it is going to face consequences.

The report is in contrast to what Krone is reporting. The Archbishop of Vienna don't forget earlier announced that the Pope did not need to respond to Father Wagner's withdrawal. People are announcing to the press what they want to believe.

Diocese of Augsburg: Bishop Mixa completely rejects criticismFraternal relationship between Jews and Catholics is close to his heart.

The Diocese of Augsburg has rejected the criticism of Bishop Walter Mixa by the Stephan J. Kramer, Secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany as "completely absurd and exaggerated". The misunderstanding of an alleged comparison of abortion practice in Germany with the Holocaust by Bishop Walter Mixa had ever arisen only because the bishop at the beginning of a lecture on "Ethics and morality in politics" in the context of current events had sharply rejected any form of Holocaust denial and expressed solidarity with the Jewish community said the spokesman for the diocese, Dr. Christoph Goldt on Monday. Mixa had said that the murder of over 6 million Jews was an "appalling and utterly unique crime" and stressed that the Holocaust was for all times, a reminder that life and human dignity of every individual should be respected.

In another context, then the bishop pointed out that even in the present there were crimes against life of an inconceivable magnitude and gave the number of abortions as 9 million in the last thirty years. Those who try to construct out of this an anti-Jewish attitude or to insult the Church as medieval, do not serve the rich and fraternal dialogue between Jews and Christians. At the same time a Catholic bishop should be allowed to give the clearest response to the wrong of abortion. Goldt recalled that Bishop Mixa as one of his first acts in Augsburg paid the the Jewish community a visit of friendship. The good and brotherly relations between Jews and Catholics were close to the heart of the bishop, stressed Goldt. All else is a defamatory libel.

On Monday the request of Windischgarsten parish priest Maria Gerhard Wagner to withdraw his nomination as Bishop of Linz was accepted and a "dispensation" granted. This was announced by the Vatican on Monday in the Press-Bulletin . Literally it says: "Il Santo Padre ha il dispensato Rev.do Msgr. Gerhard Wagner dall'accettare l'ufficio di Ausiliare Vescovo di Linz (Austria)." (= The Holy Father, relieved Gerhard Wagner from the obligation to accept the Office of the Bishop of Linz). Gerhard Maria Wagner signed on Friday 22 February 2009, the request for withdrawal of his appointment.

What will happen now in the Diocese of Linz is currently still completely open. On Sunday, the "Krone" newspaper reports that currently behind the Vatican walls intensive discussions are taking placehow to bring back the "rebellious diocese" back to the official exchange rate of the universal Church should be brought. Under debate, according to the newspaper are an Apostolic Visitation and the appointment of a coadjutor bishop.